Prosper Kwigize
“Twenty years ago, we were not struggling to wait at a single tap like we do now; our town was surrounded by many springs that provided water all year round. But now, when you get to those springs, you will surely cry,” reflects Shangilia Ibrahimu Manisha, a resident of Ngara Town in the Kagera Region.
His words echo the feelings of many in this community who remember when clean water was plentiful and readily accessible.
Today, however, the struggle for water is intense, following the challenges posed by climate change and pollution, which are rapidly drying up groundwater sources.
As stated by the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), groundwater is a crucial source of drinking water for individuals, livestock, and wildlife in the Nile Basin, with more than 70 percent of the rural population in the area relying on it.
Manisha, whose business involves extracting and distributing water to homes and commercial areas in Ngara, admits that there is a, “significant risk of groundwater sources drying up due to citizens cutting down native trees, cultivating in wetlands areas, and planting non-native trees such as eucalyptus.”
As a water trader, Manisha acknowledges that if environmental education is not provided, the community will be at risk, and educational institutions may suffer the most.
Manisha’s statement represents a tiny part of the voices of millions who rely on groundwater for domestic use, business, livestock, and agriculture.
Residents of the Kagera basin utilize water from underground sources for a variety of purposes, including household needs and the irrigation of livestock and crops. This water can be accessed through methods such as boreholes, springs, reticulated systems, and dug wells.
Currently, access to water in the Kagera region of Tanzania ranges from 40 to 80 percent.
In areas like the Kyerwa and Misenyi districts near the Ugandan border, access to clean water is between 48 and 70 percent. Many people rely on ponds to satisfy their water supply needs.
The Kagera Region has completed 73 water projects costing over 62 billion shillings to improve this situation.
These projects have increased clean water access in cities from 42 percent in 2015 to 65 percent and in rural areas from 53 percent to 67 percent.
The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) aims to improve water access even more, to reach over 85 percent of rural areas where groundwater is a vital resource.
In Misenyi and Kyerwa, people often collect rainwater or use water from dirty sources, and they sometimes have to treat water in containers to make it cleaner before using it.
Statistics on Water Access and Its Impact on Residents
According to the Kyerwa District Council website, water sources in villages and small towns are 400 meters to 10 kilometers away.
The district’s water access remains low for various reasons, such as people living in the mountains. In contrast, water sources are located in lower areas, and the deterioration of water infrastructure was built between 1974 and 1983.
However, the construction of large water projects in the city includes projects in Kayanga, Karagwe District, Kyaka-Bunazi in Misenyi District, the Rusumo Ngara Project, and Kemondo to Maruku Project in Bukoba District, as well as improvements in sewage systems in Bukoba City, all of which significantly impact residents’ lives.
Community Voices
Some residents of Katahoka in Kayanga town in the Karagwe district say they may not manage their lives without groundwater.
Springs in Katahoka Karagwe, Kisozi, Murugwanza Ngara, and other groundwater sources in the Kagera River Basin have significantly contributed to the community’s well-being for many decades.
However, groundwater is disappearing, leaving behind stories told by older people, and the youth need an understanding of the importance of conserving groundwater sources.
Bahati Nelson, a resident of Kayanga in Karagwe district, is among thousands who rely on the endangered Katahoka spring.
Nelson states that Katahoka spring water is the only source for the local community, adding that “environmental education is still lacking despite the community’s awareness of its importance and needs to be improved.”
Many pollute or destroy water sources without understanding the consequences.
She narrates that she is one of the many in the Karagwe community witnessing the decline and drying up of many water sources. However, community members only take action if they have proper education.
Nelson emphasizes the need to educate local communities about the significance of environmental conservation, noting that, “many rural populations are unaware of the importance of groundwater.”
Kaiza Theonest, a farmer from Kyamtemba Village in Misenyi district, Kagera in Tanzania, admits that groundwater is vital to the community.
Kaiza calls on citizens living in areas with water sources, such as rivers and lakes, to conserve the environment by avoiding cutting down trees, cultivating in the sources, and using pesticides on plants grown along rivers and other water sources.
Kagisha Yuston, a resident of Misenyi district, says that despite the government building wells and distributing water to homes, their Kyamtemba area still needs water infrastructure.
On his part, Petro Dezideri, a resident of Nsonga Ward on the border of Tanzania and Uganda, says that underground water sources are a refuge, and they are currently witnessing widespread encroachment by communities.
Petro calls on the authorities to erect fences around all groundwater sources in the Kagera River basin to protect them from encroachers.
This story was produced with support from NBI Secretariat (Nile-Sec), which, in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented a program across the Nile Basin focused on shared groundwater aquifers. The project’s goal was to improve water resource management at both the national and basin levels.
The first phase concentrated on building knowledge and capacity for the sustainable use and management of significant transboundary aquifers within the Nile Basin. Three aquifer areas were selected for intervention: the Kagera aquifer shared by Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi; the Mt Elgon aquifer shared by Uganda and Kenya; and the Gedaref-Adigrat aquifer shared by Sudan and Ethiopia. These aquifers are located in various climates, including arid, semi-arid, and tropical regions.
Initially, the phase involved gathering existing data and creating a Shared Aquifer Diagnostic Report (SADA) for the three selected aquifers. The subsequent phase engaged in groundwater modeling to enhance understanding of the aquifers and analyze scenarios based on changes in climate and groundwater use.
